The 7.62x54mmR Cartridge

The 7.62x54mmR Cartridge

The 7.62x54mmR cartridge was introduced as a service cartridge
125 years ago, in 1891,
and remains in military service today.
This gives it the longest service life of all
military cartridges in the world.
It is currently used mostly in sniper rifles such as the
Dragunov
(the
Снайперская
винтовка
Драгунова
or Snayperskaya Vintovka Dragunova, SVD)
and some machine guns such as the
PKM.
As for history, it was designed for the Imperial Russian
Винтовка
Мосина
or Vintovka Mosina, the "3-Line" Rifle
sometimes called the
"Mosin-Nagant"
outside Russia.

Five 7.62x54mmR cartridges in a stripper clip.

7.62 mm = bore diameter

54 mm = case length

R = rimmed

Its ballistic performance is similar to that of the
7.62x51mm NATO or .308 Winchester cartridge,
and close to that of the
.30-06 Springfield.

Its cartridge case has a capacity of 4.16 ml.
The official C.I.P. guidelines say that the 7.62x54mmR
case can handle up to 390 MPa (or 56,564 psi) piezo pressure.

Diagram of the 7.62x54mmR cartridge design.

Metallurgy became more important in arms design
around the time of the cartridge's development.
The gun's receiver and barrel obviously had to be stronger
to contain the higher pressures of smokeless powder.
The ammunition's case also had to be strong enough to
withstand increased pressure and then be yanked from the
chamber by the extractor and kicked aside with the ejector
so the next round could be automatically stripped from
the stack in the magazine and slammed into place.

The bullet's jacket and its binding to the core had to
withstand the rapid linear and rotational acceleration
through the rifled barrel.
The common rifling twist for this round is 1 turn in
240 mm (or 9.45 inches); four grooves of diameter 7.92 mm,
lands of width 3.81 mm and diameter 7.62 mm.

The original design used a 13.7 gram (210 grain)
round-nosed full metal jacket bullet.
Although it seems obvious to us in today's world of aviation,
pointed bullets have better aerodynamic performance.
The French were the first to recognize this, with a
design in 1898.

The French bullet design of 1898 was followed by a German
version in 1905 and the U.S.
.30-06 Springfield
in 1906.
The pointed shape came to be called spitzer, from the
German word for "pointed bullet", Spitzgeschoss.
Use of a German term makes sense, what with Germany
always marching around Europe shooting up the place.

The Imperial Russian forces had noticed the ballistic
disadvantages of the round-nosed bullet in the Russo-Japanese
war of 1904.
In 1908 the Russian armory introduced the
Лёхая
Пуля
or Lyokhaya Pulya, the pointed bullet.
It is a 9.7 gram (148 grain) spitzer-shaped
full metal jacketed bullet.
The 1908 design is the one still used today, some
108 years later.
There have always, of course, been slight variations around
the main spitzer design.
The Dragunov SVD sniper rifle uses the 7N1 variant, with
different powder and a 9.7 gram (152-grain)
boat-tailed FMJ bullet.

The British finally followed with their Mark VII in 1914.
Pointed bullets had caught on.

Left:
7.62x25mm Tokarev
Center:
7.62x39mm
Right:
7.62x54R
The 7.62x25mm Tokarev round at left, used in pistols and
submachine guns, has a very blunt bullet.
The other two, rifle rounds, have far more aerodynamic
spitzer type bullets.

Commercial 7.62x54mmR Ammunition

Commercial 7.62x54mmR ammunition is available.
Here is a package from Brown Bear, made in Russia.

It's interesting that it's the same paper-wrapped package
of 20 rounds found in the military "spam can" packages.

Barnaul, or
Барнаул,
is an important industrial center, producing a lot of
heavy machinery, tires and furniture.

Barnaul is the administrative center of Altai Krai,
near Russia's borders with Kazakhstan, China, and Mongolia.
It's on the Ob River south of Novosibirsk.
It's well west of the Ural Mountains in southern Siberia.
See the yellow cross on the map above.

At right you see it on the Ob River, just a little way
(on Siberian scale) south of Novosibirsk.

Here you see both commercial and military surplus
7.62x54mmR ammunition.

Above at left, you see the Soviet military surplus cartridge
(red rim on bullet) above the Bear commercial cartridge
(green lacquered case).

Below at left, you see the Bear commercial cartridge on
the left and the Soviet military surplus on the right.

The commercial cartridge case has a clear headstamp:
"7.62x54R" and the CJSC Barnaul emblem.

Notice that the commercial headstamp is impressed (concave)
while the military surplus one is raised (convex).
Military USSR cartridge headstamps are raised on 7.62x54mmR
and larger and sometimes on 7.62x25mm,
and impressed on 7.62x39mm and 9x18mm cartridges.

Here are two views of the military surplus
(copper-washed case and red band around bullet)
and commercial (green lacquered case) ammunition.

Here are two views of a wooden crate holding
military surplus ammunition.

The lower white paper label seems to be in either
Czech or Slovak, added to explain the Russian markings
written in the Cyrillic script to someone who reads a
language that is Slavic but written in the Latin script.

Inside the wooden crate are two green metal
"Spam Can" containers.
Resting on top is the included can opener.
These are Russian military surplus, or more precisely,
Soviet given their vintage.

The wooden crates had been opened, inner packages
removed and swapped between crates as the dates
and lot numbers don't match.

The short version is that ЛПС
is equivalent to "military ball" in U.S. nomenclature, but...

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